Books

Critic Maureen Corrigan says the best she can say about Barnes's "Porcupine," about deposed communist leaders on trial in Eastern Europe, is that she "didn't not like it."

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new literary biography by Carol Brightman, which weaves together an exhaustive amount of material collected up to the day of McCarthy's death.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee," by Nat Hentoff. The iconoclastic writer gives his opinions on various free speech issues -- many of which he reported on as a journalist.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new novel "The Call of the Toad," which explores the idea of homelands in postwar Europe.

John Leonard reviews "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors," the new book by husband-and-wife team Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, about the origin of life on our planet, and the similarity between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the classic compendium of health information for women--which she says is as important today as it was when it was first published two decades ago.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Ripley Under Water," a new crime novel by Patricia Highsmith -- her fifth featuring debonair con man Tom Ripley.

Maureen Corrigan, who is a lapsed Catholic herself, reviews the book Catholic Girls, a collection of essays by other lapsed Catholics. The writers' feelings about being raised Catholic range from nostalgic to angry.

John Leonard reviews Ellroy's "White Jazz," the final installment of his tetralogy of crime novels. The story reveals the darkest elements of Los Angeles life in the 1950s.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan on Madonna's new book of photograph's, "Sex." Corrigan says it does what Madonna does best: gets people to say her name.